Eureka weekly sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1887-1902, 1887-12-10
JIM TOWNSEND.

Hhe boss Liar OF tho Pacific Coase
In the following letter to friend in
Carson the Boss Liar of the Pacific
Coast gives a description of the noun
tam town OF Lundy, Mono county,
| California:
HEAD OF LAKE CANYoN,)
November Is, 1887.
DEAR IKE: wrote you day or two
ago when | was in Lundy and injected
heap OF trash into you, no doubt, for
all OF which pardon is solicited. / am
alone tonight, my late partner having
started across the mountain via Yo.
semitic, and he will be in big streak
OF luck If he don't run into terrific
snowstorm, for which l have all day
been making preparations, such as
getting in lotso Of wood and water and
overhauling cold weather traps. With
the exception of man who lives on
the other side of the lower lake, mile
from here, l am solitary and alone !;
but have a snug cabin and plenty OF
supplies for few days, and T will re-.
main here, so that don't worry much,
though it would be a serious matter for
ME If the present storm should be a
protracted one and block up the can
yon with snow; in which case nv
predicament would be dangerous and
altogether unlovely. The last Winter
was here, four men, with whom
was intimately acquainted, were buried
by snowslide but few yards from
where was sitting. Their house was
wrecked to splinters and spread all
over the canyon. but mine was un-
touched. Three Of them were killed.
The fourth was found alive after being
buried 20 hours. The three bodies
were lying on the snow while prepara-
tions were being made to convey them
to Lundy, when another slide occurred
and buried them again, so that they
were not recovered for some time after.
The rescuing party had a narrow es-
cape from similar fate. The previous
Winter our mutual friend Deacon -
had helluva time near the mouth OF
Mill Creek Canyon. The devil almost
got his grab-hooks into the venerable
philanthropist, who was so far on the
trail to kingdom come that he smelt
like a match factory for week after
ward. The storm was so fierce and
the snow so deep that the stage horses
refused duty and came to halt. Two
OF them froze to death, and stood there
until they collapsed in the sun next
Spring. The Deacon found hollow
stump and crawled in out of the blast.
When search was made for him by the
other passengers he was Just about
nodding goodbye to sublunary things,
and only by dint Of kicking and mDul-
ing him roughly could he be arou cd
from his lethargy. At last they : It
the old mans vinegar up, and he swo, :
that he would rather freeze to dea,
in a rotten stump than tumble throus
snowdrifts with a crowd of blathe,
sixties; but they dragged him out o
his hole, as dog would a badger, and
after terrible struggle reached the
dollhouse, where the aged saint was
thawed out. Every hair of his long
beard was as big as candle with ice,
and his jaws were frozen SO that they
had to stand him ON his head and pour
hot coffee in his nose to timber him up
a little. They pried his mouth open
with poker, when quart of frozen
oaths ratified ON the floor like marbles,
all blue-green and mottled with pent-
up spleen. AS these thawed out his
companions for the first time realized
that the good Deacon could soar higher
than any of them in flights of artistic
and fancy swearing-all because they
would not let him freeze to death in
that stump. Their intentions were
first-class. They wanted to get him to
camp so that the boys could give him
a good send off, and slide him down
into the bottomless pit with his ances-
tors in proper shape. But his tribula-
tions had not yet climaxed. When
the storm had abated he started for
camp, two miles away, and i'll crossing
the lake broke through into the water.
A minute after he had pulled himself
out he was as rigidly encased i'll an
armor of ice as if he had exchanged
his hollow stump for sheet-iron busi-
ness suit. How he got to camp he
couldn't tell, but he got there, and was
thawed out and limbered up again by
the united efforts of the community.
We had to use Il horse-syringe for a
bilge-pump to get the water out OF the
slack of his breeches, or that end OF
him would have drowned. The old
man survived by mere scratch, but
if he lives until his goatee is mile
long he will feel chill every time he
thinks of that Mill Greek adventure.
During Summer the weather is in
comparable-nothing like it in the
world. The Elixir OF Life is in the air,
and that, supplanted by the grandest
surroundings that mortal eye ever
rested upon, keeps a mans blood ting
ling for sense of exhilaration that
even Tim Dempseys best whisky can
not induce. jim.